Another "fad" has raised its ugly head in the library profession in an attempt to legitimize the very existence of the public library (Barbara Fister, "The Dewey Dilemma," LJ 10/1/09, p. 22-25). Now we are told that remaking the library into a "bookstore" format will bring the masses to our threshold as never before.rnLet me state emphatically that libraries are not bookstores. This is not the first time librarians, in their boorish attempts to legitimize the library, have borrowed private sector idiocies. We have seen the Starbucks "library cafe" motif (supposedly, if you feed them they will come). We have seen the CVS "drive-in" attempt to placate users' feeling that they are too busy to come into the building so we hand materials out the window.
展开▼
